Four Things That Never Happened To Nakamori Aoko
by windtear
Summary: Four things which could have happened, but didn't.  Four ways the world could be different.  Four things that never happened to Nakamori Aoko.
1. Chapter 1

Four Things That Never Happened to Nakamori Aoko

by windtear raye_

DISCLAIMER: 'Magic Kaito' is copyright Aoyama Gosho and Shogakukan, not me.

Scenario I: Prodigal

The first time Aoko sees the Kaito Kid is on her first evening back in Tokyo.

She hasn't been here on any kind of permanent basis for over ten years - not since her mother died and she went to live with her aunt in Kyoto. There have been visits, of course, and letters and phonecalls. But most of the visits were spent with her friend Kuroba Kaito and his parents, while her father buried himself in work; and the phonecalls and letters from her father were brief, compared with the ones from Kaito, even when they were seven and half a page was a lot of writing.

She's fifteen now, and has won entry to a prestigious Tokyo high school. Her aunt was delighted, Kaito was suitably impressed and even her father seemed pleased. There are no dormatories on the school campus, though, so there's only one thing to do: ask her father if she can come back to live with him. She's a big girl now, she can handle that he always puts work first. But still... maybe...

These hopes for a reconciliation and renewal of parental care are dashed when the radio alert about the Kaitou Kid heist-in-progress comes over the police radio in the car her father's using to pick her up from the train station. Without a word to her, her father picks up the responder and tells the rest of the Kaitou Kid Taskforce that he's on his way, and then rips the steering wheel around, puts on the police lights and drives off to catch the thief, giving nary a thought to his daughter in the passenger seat.

As she tells Kaito and Kuroba-obaachan the next day, it was a very humbling moment.

She does *not* tell them what had happened next - how, as the car arrived and she and her father had gotten out, a smoke-bomb had gone off next to the vehicle. Standing there, coughing and eyes streaming, she had not registered at first the figure that had loomed up out of the artificial mist beside her. When she did, the man in the white tuxedo had smiled gently at her, bowed and presented her with a white rose and a sapphire ring, murmured "Welcome back, Aoko-chan," and then vanished. Her father had been furious that nobody had caught him, even though the ring proved to be the subject of the burglary and she had given it straight back.

The rose sits in a bud vase on her bedside table, soon joined by a twin, presented to her by Kaito.

That night, her second in Tokyo, she sits on her bed and stares at the two roses. She thinks about how tall and filled out Kaito has become, and how, if she didn't know his age and met him on the street, she might think him older than almost-sixteen. She thinks about how, when he greeted her that morning, he had said hello and how-are-you, but unlike everyone else, hadn't said 'welcome back'. She thinks about how, when Kuroba-obaachan had exclaimed in surprise and shock when she had told them about how her father had immediately gone back to work, Kaito had reacted much more slowly, as if it hadn't been a surprise to him at all.

And she wonders.

The days quickly fall into a rhythm that is as innoccuous as it is mundane. Aoko settles into her new school, making friends with several of the other 'ordinary' girls and, surprisingly, the queen of the school. Akako-san is beautiful, intelligent, popular and before long it becomes clear that she wants Kaito as more than a friend.

So perhaps it is not so surprising she becomes Aoko's friend when Kaito is such a constant presence in Aoko's life. Every time she turns around, it seems, Kaito is there; Aoko's new friend Keiko speculates that he has fallen in love with her, an idea Aoko can't help but find entirely fanciful. She is, after all, cute rather than beautiful; Kaito is the handsomest boy in class and being pursued by the school beauty. She and Kaito are not anything other than good friends.

(and Aoko will not think about a thief in a white suit with a flying white cape, smelling of roses, greeting her with affection and her name)

And then there's the routine that is *not* innoccuous or mundane: on the nights since her arrival that there's a full moon, the Kaitou Kid rides the skies and her father charges out in reckless pursuit, his face alive and his eyes bright with anticipation.

She has been forced to accept that this is what he loves, what he lives for: the pursuit, the challenge of an opponent that flings down the gauntlet and faces him down. Nothing else, neither a wife nor a daughter nor any other thing, can hope to match that level of committment from him. Though she knows he cares for her as much as he is able, what parental love he is able to give is not nearly as much as she wants. Fortunately for Aoko, Kuroba-obaachan is prepared to lend a shoulder when she first realises this. After the first storm of bitter tears, Aoko realises that her aunt, too, knew what her father was like, and that this was why she was brought up in Kyoto. Still, she can't help but be a little resentful of the opponent who has so absorbed her father's attention.

Kaito is sympathetic when she explains why she really doesn't want to hear him talk about the Phantom Thief he admires. Not that she blames him for admiring - the Kaitou Kid's feats of derring-do are legendary - but she really doesn't want to even think about the Thief who steals her father's attention along with his prizes. It's bad enough that she has already lost her father. She really doesn't want to give him any more victories, even if she's the only one who knows he's won.

(it *is* admiration, isn't it? Kaito must be a fan, because the other possibility is nothing short of rankest cruelty and Aoko doesn't want to believe the universe could be that cruel)

The next heist night, she chooses to stay home and study - she's not doing as well in Biology as she would like, and the one place everyone would be is the one place that right now she *doesn't* want to be. It is therefore somewhat of a shock to look up from her notes and textbook after a couple of hours to see, on the table in front of her, a posy of white rosebuds, a mug of hot tea (fixed just the way she likes it) and an emerald pendant. And a note, telling her to lock up the house, anyone could walk in.

The gentle scold is not mitigated by the cartoon face the Kaitou Kid has scribbled in lieu of signature.

When her father gets home and she wordlessly hands him the note and the jewel (the posy is sitting up on her bedside table in the same bud vase that held the Kid's previous rose and the mug of tea is long since drunk and washed out in the kitchen sink) the explosion is all she anticipated and more.

The next heist night finds her sitting in her father's patrol car, studiously ignoring everything going on outside and concentrating on her English homework. Her father may insist that she accompany him to the heist, but she is *not* going to join the Kid's legion of screaming fangirls out there.

Finishing one exercise, she puts the pen down and recites aloud in English, [Would you like a drink of cold water, sir?]

[Thank you, that would be very kind of you,] a familiar voice replies in the same language, and Aoko can only stare in shock through the now-open window as the Kaitou Kid leans against the side of the patrol car, sipping from *her* water-bottle.

(how can his voice be familiar? She has heard it only once before)

"What -? That's *my* water-bottle!" she finally collects herself enough to object.

"Yes, and thank you for offering it," the Kid replies smoothly. "Heists are thirsty work."

"That was for my homework!" she tries again.

"Offering hardworking entertainers cool drinks is homework? Your school is to be commended," he banters back, and this time she can see the smile curving his lips. Somehow, it seems less cold and more genuine than the smile he wears in the photographs and videos of his heists, and for the first time she can see why he has such a following - this easy charm invites a smile back and a joke in return.

(so like another charming boy she knows - but that can't be... can it? No, it must not be, for if it were - if it were...)

"Thank you for the drink, miss," the Kaitou Kid says with a bow, "but now I must be on my way -" and another puff of smoke erupts around the car as the now-empty water bottle rattles down inside the door and the electric window rackets back up again. Aoko follows its path with her eyes, and is distracted again by the discovery that there is a sparkling white diamond lying in her lap, beside a pure white rose.

"DAD!"

But opening the door lets in the sleeping gas, and when the members of the Taskforce get to the patrol car, it is to find her slumped on the back seat, with the stone and the rose held loosely in her hand, as if tucked there by gloved fingers.

This is the third time in five heists that the Kaitou Kid has presented the ill-gotten fruits of his labours to Aoko, so it's not surprising that she finds herself being questioned by the Kaitou Kid Taskforce.

It's probably not even surprising that her father is the lead questioner.

What *is* surprising is how hostile the questioning is.

As she reiterates for the umpteenth time that *no*, she doesn't know who the Kaitou Kid is, *no*, she doesn't know where he is, and *no*, she has no idea why he keeps giving her the jewels to give back, she looks over the group of her father's coworkers, led by her father. The blank, hostile faces are scary, but the harsh light burning in her father's eyes, that burns higher as her answers don't change, is truly frightening.

Eventually the Taskforce accepts that she really doesn't know anything, and her father escorts her out to the car that will take them back to her father's house.

(when did it stop being 'home'? She doesn't know but she thinks it was somewhere around the fifth demand from her father to stop lying and hand the Kid over. Not that she could without proof, whatever she suspected)

"You can tell me, you know," her father says, as the car pulls into the driveway. "He's just a criminal and you don't have to shield him..."

"I *don't know*," she replies wearily. "I really don't."

That light that burns in his eyes, that burnt during the interrogation, frightens her still, because she can see it has burnt away any consideration he might have held for her. In Inspector Nakamori's eyes now she is an accessory, either before or after the fact, witholding vital information from the police. She has convinced the rest of the Taskforce of her innocence, but she can tell that he doesn't believe. He's so enthralled with the idea that he's finally found a lead that the thought that it's a false trail simply won't cross his mind.

"Don't be silly, dear," her father replies. "I can promise you that he'll get a fair trial."

"I'd hand him over to you in a heartbeat if I knew who he was!" she shouts, worn down beyond any kind of respect or politeness. "But I *don't*!"

Her father nods. "Go up and get some sleep," he tells her. "We can talk about this in the morning."

"No!" she insists, sitting down on the living room couch. "You need to understand, Dad, that *I* *don't* *know*! Anything! I really don't!"

Her father frowns and stares at her, and the light is brighter than ever. "When you change your mind, I'll be listening."

She heaves a sigh. "Dad, I can't change my mind about something I *DON'T* *KNOW*!"

"Don't be silly, dear," he tells her patronisingly.

She stares at him, worn out in heart and soul, with eyes gritty and sore from lack of sleep and realises: he doesn't know her. Maybe it's the years apart, or maybe he never would have. But he doesn't, and he doesn't want to, either. All he wants is the Kaitou Kid.

In that moment, she realises that she doesn't hate the Kid at all. She doesn't even hate this man standing in front of her. What she hates is that this man, her father, is too busy being a policeman to be a father.

"I'm going to bed," she tells him.

"Wake me before you go to school in the morning," the stranger with her father's face orders, yawning himself.

She doesn't reply. If he's foolish enough to take that as consent, well, she's not going to correct him.

Kaito, Keiko and Akako are appropriately sympathetic when she pours the whole story out to them at Recess. It doesn't make the bitter taste of the tale as it leaves her mouth any sweeter.

Keiko exclaims in shock and outrage enough for all three of them and Akako expresses her surprise that Aoko of all people would be suspected of being the Kaitou Kid's accomplice, in her usual backhanded fashion that might well be either compliment or insult (Aoko is privately convinced that the reason why she and Keiko are friends with Akako is because they both choose to hear her words as compliments). Kaito, for his part, is silent beyond his initial reaction.

Aoko can't help dwelling on that all the rest of the day.

"I never intended for you to be suspected."

"What?" Aoko looks up from her homework to see a figure in a white tuxedo, face shadowed but with monocle shining, lounging on her bedroom windowsill. "You!"

"I'm sorry. I only intended to make your father notice you more."

"YOU!" comes a shout from her bedroom door, and her father rushes into the room, hands flying forward in a vain attempt to grab the thief's cloak as Kid leaps from the window onto the streetlamp outside the Nakamori house, and then vanishes into the dark outside as her father begins to swear.

"Notice you more? I notice you *plenty*!" her father rants as he slams the window shut. "Bastard!" He turns and sees Aoko sitting, as if paralysed, staring at the windowsill. "Are you all right? He didn't try anything, did he?"

"No. Well... no, Dad, he didn't get time to do anything."

"Good, good," he says, and then asks, almost shyly, "What are you working on?"

"Biology homework. I'm reviewing enzyme reactions. I've read my class notes and the textbook three times and they *still* make no sense."

"I never could get the hang of them myself..."

As the two of them make awkward small talk, before her father excuses himself, Aoko can't help glancing at the flash of white she can see poking out from between the window sash and sill, and when he goes, she immediately opens the window.

It's a now sadly squashed white rose. Of course. In its sudden death, it has perfumed the window track. The heady scent she has come to associate with an inscrutable thief in white billows into the room, and she can't help but smile.

Nothing has been solved. She and her father are still barely more than strangers to each other, the Kaitou Kid is still running around stealing gems, and she still harbours grave suspicions about a certain old friend's possible nocturnal activities.

But she and her father have had a conversation, there are bound to be other clues to what Kaitou Kid is really after, and she'll find *some* way to clear up her suspicions about Kaito.

For the first time she thinks, without any doubts or qualifications, that coming back to Tokyo really was a good thing to do.

*~*~*~*~*~* 


	2. Chapter 2

Four Things That Never Happened To Nakamori Aoko

by windtear raye_

DISCLAIMER: 'Magic Kaito' is copyright Aoyama Gosho and Shogakukan, not me.

Scenario II: A Shift in Shadows

Adjusting the hat-brim, the girl who had been (and come the dawn would again be, probably) Nakamori Aoko rolled her shoulders and pulled a face to loosen her facial muscles as she stood in the dark shadow of the museum. It would not do to be seen frowning, after all. Even if it was all she wanted to do, sometimes.

It had been a hard realization to make, that right did not automatically equal fair . It was almost as shattering as the idea that truth and honour were not the same either. Although both had paled into insignificance against the pain she had felt when her world cracked and she had finally understood that justice and the law were not the same thing.

Sometimes she hated the idea of what she had become, but there really was no other option. The police were at a standstill, and Minako s killers were still walking the streets. Aoko discounted the fact that her friend had bought and taken the drugs herself; the ones that sold them to her, knowing they were selling death, were as or more responsible for her death. Her diary had skimmed over the men in black that the police apparently could not find, and that Aoko s own examination of the case indicated would likely walk away scot-free.

These men in black seemed to crop up an awful lot in the unsolved cases file her father had back at the police station. She still remembered the first time she had heard of them, when, as a very young child, she had cried as she said goodbye to her very best friend who was moving away. Kaito-kun had cried too, and told her, pinky-swearing her to secrecy, that he and Kuroba-ojisan and Kuroba-obasan were moving because some bad men in black were chasing Kuroba-ojisan. And now they were active again, flooding the streets with drugs, running gangs, and suddenly thieves dressed in black were starting to hit museums housing famous jewels.

/The Men In Black have taken away too many of my friends./

She d always been good at gymnastics, and Kuroba-ojisan had taught her a few performance tricks before being driven away. That, and an old legend, would start her off. The white tuxedo came from the attic, out of a chest of her father s old clothes. The blue dress shirt, white gloves, red tie and white loafers were easily purchased at various stores around the area, and she had found the cloak and white top hat at a costume shop. She d dropped the elegantly-calligraphed notice on her father s desk two days earlier when his back had been turned. He d disregarded it then. He wouldn t next time. And neither would her true prey.

The girl who had been Nakamori Aoko shook her shoulders, settling her cloak .

And the Kaitou Kid stepped out into the moonlight.

~*~**~*~**~*~* 


	3. Chapter 3

Four Things That Never Happened to Nakamori Aoko

by windtear raye_

DISCLAIMER: 'Magic Kaito' belongs to Gosho Aoyama and Shogakukan, not me.

Scenario III: Tears of the Jewel

I don't know when I fell in love with humans.

My first birth was from fire - ejaculate from the heart of a shattered star. Had that wandering sun not crashed into my own parent, my fate would have taken a far different path. I had been intended to be the seed of a planet, spun off in the expected manner and birthing in my own turn... I don't know what, now. What species would have arisen on my surface, what civilizations would have trod upon me, what races would have worshipped me, what would they have called me? They would have been tall, I think. Blue-skinned - I like blue. And I think I would have given them a way to talk to me. I've discovered I like people talking to me.

(Everyone has 'what if's. Mine are slightly different to most.)

While I flew through space, lonely and alone, I slowly grew an awareness of myself. Not time, nor distance, nor any finer perception - that all came later - but a knowledge, that *this* was Me and *that* was Not Me.

(That which was Me would turn out to be a volcanic diamond. Apparently, astronomers have spotted several such jewels, of apparently similar origin, speeding through space both on their own and in the trails of comets. I wonder how many others are ensouled, as I was?)

My flight was arrested when I was drawn into Sol's gravitational well and I collided with one of Sol's offspring, Terra. She's a very patient and forbearing soul. Some of the things her children have done to her... well, I can *say* I would have found a way to fight back if it had been me, but the whole point is, it isn't me. It won't be me.

(I don't know if the ability to cry is a good or bad thing.)

When I crashed onto Terra, a human hand - at that stage barely more than a paw - picked me up. The first human sound I heard was a particular grunt I would later learn was one of the first versions of "Ooh, pretty".

(Nobody has ever called me, in any of my forms, 'beautiful'. I don't know why that hurts. But it does.)

I was taken up, polished, and a leather thong bound about one end, so I could be hung around a neck. I was then presented, with great ceremony, to a young female. The female accepted me and I was pridefully worn for a few days, before another female came up behind my wearer and, with equally great care, bashed her head in with a rock. I was left with the body, so I assume it was over a mate or offspring or some such.

(For the longest time I didn't understand about human mates and I think I still don't. My mother in this life died and my father didn't take another mate; when I finally understood I had the opportunity for one myself, he had left off offering his attentions; and the only other potential mate I've found myself considering is both of interest to other females and probably has no interest in me, anyway. It should not be a matter of worry for me, because I've never before considered a mate or had a prospect of one. But it is.)

This began the pattern that my life became. I would be presented as an adornment, I would be worn for a short time, and then a death would follow after.

(If I have a curse, it is this: the sort of people who take pride in owning a jewel as famous as the Pandora have a lot of enemies; sometime the odds have to catch up with them. And sadly, enough of the times have been after they came to possess me.)

During this time I gradually learned human language, the finer feelings, and compassion. And to be fond of these silly, beautiful creatures. Enough to hate it, each and every time, as another bearer fell. Enough to loathe the blood and death that surrounded me. Enough to, one day, try to reach for my thwarted original destiny, to access the seed of life that still lay deep within me and share that precious gift with someone slowly losing theirs.

(Stupidity and foolishness are sadly not reserved to any one species.)

A part of me insists that saving my bearer that day was not wrong, but still - I was never owned by nice people, and this one was no different. A gangster, a thief, a monster, say whichever crime you like and I'm sure he was guilty of it. Maybe his life would have been no loss.

(Maybe I'm closer to Terra than either of us would like to think.)

It was seen and it became known. My bearer didn't live long - after his escape, he threw himself into vice even more fervently, now carrying me at all times, and when one of his victims rose up against him, I forbore to weep. He died demanding my bounty. And the legend became that only once in a hundred years, under the full moon, would I weep the tears of life.

(Is it not written, 'Ask and ye shall receive, demand and ye shall lose all'?)

And that's how it was for nearly two hundred years, until the Kaitou Kid found me. I speak not of Kuroba Kaito, but Kuroba Toichi, of course. He didn't know what he held; I had been one of a number of stolen jewels sitting in his target's lockbox, snatched up to disguise his true objective, and this was years before the Black Organisation approached him. Toichi was a true gentleman thief, with the emphasis on 'thief'; *he* never returned what he stole, selling it on instead. So when a particularly jagged and roughly-shaped volcanic diamond fell off the table and onto one of his diamond-cutters, breaking into several pieces, he saw it merely as a piece of good fortune and gathered up the pieces to reshape and reset, so that they would sell on more easily. While I, freed from my crystalline form, sought... less obvious housing.

(Sometimes I wish I hadn't taken advantage of that opportunity. If I had been there when he took those injuries, I might have helped and saved his life. But I know the truth is that if I had been in his possession still, he would have handed me over to the Black Organisation as soon as he realised I was the Pandora they were asking for, and very likely would have been killed anyway. Toichi always honoured his contracts and he didn't realise what the Black Organisation really was for *months*.)

Being born a human was both interesting and frustrating. Interesting in that the learning and growing process was completely different. Frustrating in that it took so *long*!

(I think that's where so many of my temper issues come from. I was never very patient at the best of times, and the full bloom of puberty combined with failing Modern History was a most uncomfortable and memorable period. Kaito, himself in the raging throes of hormones, was less than no help.)

I shut off most of my memories and, well, *enjoyed* childhood. A jewel has no latency period; the maturation process held a kind of wry and gentle pleasure. There was, of course, pain; the loss of my mother and Uncle Toichi, as well as the pain of injuries. But there was much joy too and much to learn. I wallowed in my childhood and I knew I was deemed 'childish' by many of my peers. I now know it was the more-than-human consciousness of myself, that I didn't let my human self retain, that drove me to that. Childhood is precious.

(That is something the human writers do get right, though, as typical for humans, for entirely the wrong reasons.)

And that, I think, is why, when the time came, the end of my childhood was so devastating to me.

It was a cool autumnal evening, with a sharp enough chill that it was pleasant to wear my windcheater. It was a full moon and the Kaitou Kid was dancing across the sky, even though the only music was the voice of the crowd.

(Given the way so many of her species mob up together, sometimes I think Terra must be terribly lonely. And then I remember how pack behaviour works, and I think that Terra must be terribly amused by schadenfreude.)

I had begun to turn away and made my way out of the main crowd and along the street towards the train station and home when the shots rang out. The Kaitou Kid paused mid-pirouette and then dropped like the proverbial brick. Without thought, I immediately raced for the spot I was almost certain he'd be. Oddly enough, it was in the same direction that I'd been moving, and away from the crowd.

(Prescience is not one of my powers, but I do get lucky every so often, just like everyone else. It helps to be able to read air currents and have a rudimentary knowledge of how physics works. Ironically, this is knowledge I wouldn't have if not for my human schooling.)

I found him, desperately trying to stagger to a sheltered corner. His phone was open in his hand and the light of an open call blinked on it obviously he'd tried to call his allies for help, but I had no idea how successful the call had been. That the enterprise (saving his life) had not been successful was made painfully obvious by the fact that the damasked silk of his tuxedo was now a bright arterial crimson and he was hunched over a pool of it. He collapsed as I touched his shoulder lightly, and we both tumbled to the ground he without any control, I as gracefully as I could, maneouvring myself so he fell on top of me. As his head hit the cloth that covered my upper thighs, the top hat and monocle went flying, and I could see his face in the light of the streetlamp.

It was Kaito.

And my world shattered.

The human child I'd been screamed and gibbered inside my head as my older self opened her eyes within my mind and took in everything in a split second, and I knew the truth that I was Pandora, the Jewel of Immortality that a thousand men had died for, that I was Nakamori Aoko, seventeen year old human girl with a best friend dying in her lap, that the jewel the Kaitou Kid was clutching held an uncanny resemblance to my original form, that the Pandora's body count was about to rise again...

No.

/Pandora/ shoved /Aoko/ out of the way and took control.

I blinked hard. It's a fallacy that blinking stops crying - it just pushes the tears out of the way faster. As I blinked, I focused on the potency I hid within myself, bringing it up into my tear ducts and impregnating that one tear. My eyes were probably glowing red in the diffused glow of the streetlight as the nerves and the blood vessels feeding them engorged as they bore the power up and I imbued it into the drop. I watched it glimmer on my eyelash for that instant before it rolled down my cheek, freefalling through the air before hitting Kaito's lip and sliding into his mouth. The potency of life itself, that would have caused the birth of a hundred million species, entered his system.

(Yes, most of them would probably have been beetles of some description.)

The change - the sudden healing and the way his sapphire blue eyes slammed open - was sudden enough to make me jump. He stared at me and I could see him processing it all - my red eyes, my tearstained cheek, the salt on his lip, his sudden healing. He leapt to his feet - a fluid, graceful movement that made my hormones jump up and remind me that my body is that of a healthy young female, at just the right age to mate successfully, and standing in front of me was a strong and *very* attractive young male.

(Sometimes I wonder at myself in this life, so focussed on mates and breeding and offspring. And sometimes I tell myself not to ask questions and just watch the boys walk by.)

"Pandora."

"Yes?" I replied politely. There was no point in concealing anything now.

His posture was menacing, the cold in his eyes matched by his voice. "What have you done with Aoko?"

"I'm right here."

His posture didn't change, nor his manner warm, and his eyes actually grew narrower. "You are not Aoko."

I sighed. "I am the seventeen year old female known to you and others as Nakamori Aoko. I have been Aoko for all of my life in this body, I will be Aoko until this my body dies, and I will probably continue to consider myself to be Aoko for quite some time thereafter. I just happen to also be the entity that was the jewel that men called the Pandora."

He didn't move, and I felt the urge to explain further. "I always hated the way men would fight over me. Did they *really* think I could give immortality? Did they really think it was worth it?"

"You healed me," he shrugged, without dropping the menacing posture.

"Yes. For some unknown reason I like you and I didn't want you to die," I returned, snarkily. "Don't count on it ever happening again."

"If you are the Pandora and also Aoko, why did you become Aoko?" he demanded.

"Chance," I told him flatly. "When the original gemstone I was in was shattered, there were two human females nearby. One was three months pregnant and the child had already quickened; your mother and you, I think. The other was not but about to be; I ensured conception took place and ensouled the child as soon as it did."

He stepped back and away from me, and was gone. I breathed out, once, and then the crowd and the Task Force were upon me. I claimed that I had no idea where the Kaitou Kid was, and explained the bloodstains on my hands and skirt away by showing them the pool of blood I'd 'discovered' in the street. That led to me being given a quick but thorough physical examination by a policewoman attached to the Task Force, and after I got the all-clear, I went home.

(One of the best things about being human: chocolate chip cookies and warm milk when you're stressed. Believe me on this one. If there were any equivalent for diamonds, I might still be crystalline today.)

The next morning, I didn't go to school. Instead I pled a cold (my father was too preoccupied with worrying about the Kid to realise I didn't actually *look* sick sometimes I feel he cares more about the thief than me), and lay in bed, sorting through the newly awakened memories and outlook of the older part of my personality. That was what allowed me to recognise and acknowledge his 'betrayal' for the painfully young action that it was, and to forgive him for it. Kaito had never intended to hurt me, and probably hadn't realised what he'd gotten into before he was in over his head.

(Another of the frailties of the flesh: thought processes are now somewhat less speedy and somewhat more painful. I never thought, before I incarnated as a human, that thinking could give me a headache.)

The next day, I went to school, but I walked alone Kaito didn't meet me at the corner, and I was almost late, waiting for him. When I did arrive (and he showed up five minutes later) he didn't speak a word to me. He didn't flip my skirt or play a trick or fiddle with my stuff. Before lunch, it was all over school that Nakamori and Kuroba were on the outs.

(Yet another part of being human gossip. It's interesting from an anthropological and biological perspective, I'll give it that. It's truly amazing how simple words can hurt so much.)

Hakuba-kun showed up at my desk at lunch, and asked to sit with me. I said yes, because Kaito clearly wasn't going to. He gave me the usual pleasantries about the day and my health, which I replied to in the proper fashion, and then he asked me, Are you wearing contact lenses?

No, I replied. Why do you ask?

Your eyes they're purple. Weren't they blue before?

A trick of the light, I responded flippantly, after a breath to think. Sometimes they look blue and sometimes purple. It is a little weird, I guess.

I suppose, Hakuba-kun echoed, and we continued to chat quietly the rest of lunchtime.

Before the day was over I had fifteen people stare me in the eyes to determine if they had always been purple. I pretended that it didn't get to me, but it was still annoying. And Kaito wasn't one of them.

That afternoon, Kaito wordlessly joined me on the walk home, and I could practically hear the whispers spreading out Nakamori and Kuroba were together again. We walked our usual route in silence till Kaito grabbed my hand and led me off to the local canal, down the hill to its banks. There, in peace and quiet, where we could see everyone so nobody could sneak up on us, he told me the story of a gentleman thief who was also a magician, of an organisation dedicated to finding immortality, of the contracting of the former by the latter till the thief wanted to quit and the organisation killed him rather than let him go. Of the way he had found out about it all, and his quest to find and destroy the jewel at the centre of it all, the Pandora.

(I always knew I was causing destruction and pain with my existence, but it wasn't until I learned about Kuroba Toichi that I realised that some of those ripples impacted on people who actually weren't deserving of the pain.)

So now what do we do? I asked finally.

What? Kaito asked. I told you that so you'd know why I'm so freaked out!

Yes, and I thank you, I replied. But now things have changed. You've found me, and I'm kind of glad about that because now I'm awake, really awake, and that's really what's best even though it hurts-

Wait, it hurts?

Of course it hurts, but I'll cope. It's the revenge you want to take against me that's really worrying me.

His face closed up. What makes you think that?

It's all over that story, I said flatly. Uncle Toichi was killed because of the Pandora, you want to destroy the Pandora, and I know you said it's so the Black Organisation can't use the Pandora, but you've been my best friend for ten years. I know you. You want someone to pay, and I understand that, because I'm human and I loved him too and I want someone to pay too. You can't reach the Black Organisation but you can reach the Pandora, so that's who you were going after. And here I am. I'm a human and you're bigger and stronger than me. You could kill me very easily.

He did his I-am-a-living-statue imitation again.

I'm sorry, I said sincerely. But I'm not going to commit suicide and I'm not going to just let you kill me. I'm not going to go tamely to the Black Organisation either, I became a human so people couldn't use me anymore! There has to be something we can think of to do, to get Uncle Toichi's killers.

For the first time that day, Kaito looked me in the eyes. He reached out his hand and cupped my face gently. You mean it, he said, wonderingly.

I leaned the side on my face into his large, strong, gentle hand and looked down the length of my nose at his face. Of course I mean it, I told him, my tone withering but lips smiling. Any ideas yet?

He shook his head and pulled his hand away. No. He turned and began leading me back home. On my doorstep, he turned to face me, said mysteriously, You know, lavender suits you, and walked away.

Three days later, there was another Kaitou Kid heist.

When Kaito made his appearance, it was with a number of changes in his costume. He'd refused to let me see before he left (I had turned up on his doorstep after school, telling Kuroba-obaasan I wanted help with homework, and then tried to get him to let me help, but he'd stuck to the Biology quiz and gently tossed me out at five o'clock) so I was as surprised as everyone else to see that under his white tuxedo tails he was wearing a lavender dinner shirt and a white tie. Under that I spotted a slight bulkiness I was familiar with from my father he was wearing a Kevlar vest, and I let out a breath I'd been holding. Beside me, a girl in the crowd openly mourned, Oh no, Kaitou Kid is gay! and I couldn't help grinning. Well, if he was, and I doubted it, it wouldn't matter much.

The heist went smoothly, and he showed off a bit before blithely handing Father the jewel (after all, he knew exactly where the Pandora was) before springing up onto the top of the lamp-post. Yet again, the shots rang out, but this time, although he staggered, Kaito didn't fall. Instead, he flipped open his cape into a small hang-glider and caught an updraft, heading straight for where the shots had come from. The Task Force followed him (of course) and charged up the building he landed on, to find a sniper parked on the roof, wrapped in a net, with the remains of a cyanide-tooth ripped out of his jaw and crushed beside him.

The sniper sang like a canary to the Task Force, fortunately; the next morning he was found dead in his cell at the watch-house.

The next day, I quizzed Kaito on his new heist outfit. Lavender shirt and white tie? I asked.

Samurai wear their allegiances, so too do I, he replied, and refused to be drawn further.

Of course I couldn't help thinking for just a moment that maybe his changing of his shirt from blue to purple, the way my eyes had changed, was his way of saying something about the way he felt about me without saying anything; but just as quickly I dismissed it.

Nobody ever wanted me solely for myself.

Meanwhile, the sniper's story was making headlines around the nation and creating a frenzy of support for the Kaitou Kid. An organisation of criminals targeting famous treasures around the country? The Kaitou Kid stopping their thefts by stealing the things first and then returning them when they were safe? It was a miracle people weren't trying to pin medals on his chest.

Well, except for my father, of course. Hearing that the first Kaitou Kid had in fact been murdered by this organisation and that they were doing their level best to take his successor out fired him up like you wouldn't believe. He also took it as a personal affront that the man had been murdered in police custody, and many times would sit listening to the tapes of the initial interrogation, trying to extract any more clues that he could. The Task Force now had standing orders to capture and interrogate the Kid, and if they had to choose one or the other, go for the questions.

Me? I raided the police station equipment locker and, using Father's name, gave Kaito a full set of Kevlar body armour.

(There is no need to look at me like that.)

It is strange how quickly one settles into routines, even when the routines are about things that are utterly crazy.

Kaito, of course, had nothing to change, but I did. Now that I knew the why, I had made my choice and I genuinely wanted to help, I had to totally rearrange my thinking. It really was very hard to step away from the childish, 'Thieves are bad and stealing is bad, no matter what' to a more nuanced stance, and being Pandora didn't help much; for all my gemstone patience and strength, I had never had to see the world in shades of grey, and shades of grey was now where I lived. I focused on 'Kaito is a good guy doing this for good reasons' instead. I still made him swear an oath on Toichi-ojisan's grave that he'd give up being Kaitou Kid when the Black Organisation was brought down.

I said I wanted to help. Kaito wouldn't let me. He never shared where the place he did his preparations was. Although I did meet Jii-ojisan, Kaito told the old man he 'didn't want me getting hurt' and got him to agree not to tell me anything. If I showed up at his place the afternoon of a heist, Kaito would shoo me out.

I know I sound clingy, but I didn't do anything more than ask. It was Kaito who overreacted. And I'm not exaggerating; showing up on my bedroom windowsill as I'm getting my coat to go to stand in the crowd at a heist and cracking a sleeping-gas pill in my face, and then locking and barring the door and window both, can only be defined as overkill. As can the Kaitou Kid's late night visit to Father's office, where he explained that civilian relatives were often the Black Organisation's favourite targets, and so got Father completely on-side for all the 'Keep Aoko away from the heist' schemes he cooked up.

(I would later find out that he'd met up with and started working with Kudo Shinichi during this time, and Kudo-san told him all about the narrow escapes from the Black Organisation that Kudo-san's girlfriend Mouri Ran had. Which explains Kaito's paranoia to some extent, but really doesn't excuse cuffing me to the inside door handle of Father's squad car.)

Heists led to assassination attempts, assassassination attempts led to captures, and the Task Force learned to interrogate suspects on the spot, as each would 'mysteriously' die in custody. Jigsaw pieces came together and slowly, slowly, the goal came into sight.

I knew nothing. The men in my life, Father and Kaito both, conspired to keep it that way, to my utter frustration. I knew it was building, and as I quietly and privately raged to Kaito, I was *what they wanted* - if anyone deserved to know how close we were to shutting it down, it was *me* - but they both told me nothing, kept me ignorant, and merely told me things were 'progressing'.

Sometimes I think they were doing it just to see me angry.

And then Kaito disappeared.

I did everything I could think of to find him. I filed a missing persons report, I followed his trails and I tore apart his room looking for clues.

(It was very artfully designed to look like the typical teenage boy's room, too, right down to the porn magazine not-very-well-hidden under his mattress. It looked like it had never even been opened. The photograph of me in my sundress on the beach, tacked up on his corkboard, looked far more worn than the masturbatory aid.)

Two days ticked by. Three. Four. Five.

On the sixth day, I was sitting on my bed, depressed and despondent. As Pandora, I was meant to be the heart of a planet and its ecosystem; the ability to give Life my one and only talent. I couldn't cast a spell to find Kaito, I couldn't touch his lifeforce and track it, I couldn't even put clues together. All I could do was wait.

My bedroom curtains fluttered, and then a figure perched there for a second, before tipping into the room. I stared for a second before racing over to him, exclaiming "Kaito!"

He looked drained, worn and battered, his face bruised and streaks of blood on his shirt. I gently reached up and cupped his cheek, as I began my barrage of questions.

"Where have you been? Are you all right? What have you been doing? Are they gone? Is everybody else all right? I was so worri-MPH!"

He cut me off with a kiss, and I promptly forgot eveything except the feel of his lips on mine, the feel of his lean body pressed against my own and the need that suddenly flared within me. I scrabbled at the cloth over his shoulders and felt him pulling at my dress as we backed over to my bed. There was no coherent thought to any of it; all I knew was that I had almost lost him, and even bare skin to bare skin wasn't close enough.

After, I almost held my breath. His body still covered mine, his arm holding me so tight against him that I couldn't even wiggle and his head snuggled so deeply into the fold between my shoulder and my neck. I really hadn't expected this; although I knew my own heart, I wasn't expecting this from him. Finally, into the silence, Kaito began speaking.

"It'll be all over the newspapers tomorrow, but they'll only have half the story. We had established it, Hakuba-kun, Hattori-san, Kudo-san and me, that the head of the Black Organisation would be there, at a certain place and a certain time. Take him out, cut off the head of the snake, we thought. Of course, it didn't work out that way..."

He didn't move or loosen his grip during the whole sorry tale, of the battle and the enemy's final run and the desperate final struggle when they had cornered the rat.

"Everyone's alive, although I think Kudo-san will probably walk with a cane the rest of his life, and I don't know if Hattori-san will ever be able to do kendo again, the break was so bad, and how Hakuba-kun didn't get hit with anything I don't know."

"You didn't get hit with anything either," I pointed out.

"I had you to come back to," he smiled. "But after the capture, I didn't need anything, so after I could see that they were being taken care of, I came home. Came here."

I let that slide, but felt a small shiver of delight that he thought of me as home. "So, tomorrow..." I prompted.

"Tomorrow the world will know you're Kaitou Kid's girl," was the sleepy reply. "Right now, can I just sleep?" ~*~*~*

I don't know what the future holds, and I never did. I don't know if Kaito will live forever now. I don't know how long I will live. I don't know even if we will age.

But I do know that I love Kaito, and strangely, oddly, inexplicably, he loves me back. I do know that I want to stay beside him as long as I can, and if that's a hundred thousand years, that's fine by me. If it's less, don't tell me; I'd rather hope for a thousand centuries.

And I'll always have hidden, in the bottom of my jewellery case, a cracked silver monocle with a hanging charm engraved with a four-leaf clover. 


	4. Chapter 4

Four Things That Never Happened To Nakamori Aoko

by windtear raye_

DISCLAIMER: 'Magic Kaito' is copyright Aoyama Gosho and Shogakukan, not me.

Scenario IV: A Rose By Any Other Name

Keiko came running up the stairs to the roof. It was almost unbelievable - Aoko *wasn't* suicidal! - but just as the breathless freshman had gasped out, Aoko was sitting outside the safety fence, right on the edge of the six story drop, idly kicking her legs in the air, and Keiko felt her heart sink as she saw the fey look on her friend's face as she gazed out into nothing.

"Aoko?" she called gently, desperately hoping not to startle the other girl into slipping.

"Hey, Keiko," Aoko replied. "Come sit down."

"Why don't we sit down over here?" Keiko asked, hoping to gently draw Aoko back from whichever edge she was on.

"Here's fine," Aoko said dreamily. "Here I can feel the wind. I like the wind. It doesn't make promises to break them. It doesn't swear to remember and forget anyway. It doesn't say it will be somewhere and then not show. It doesn't love anything so it doesn't abandon anything."

Oh dear, Keiko thought. I don't even know if this is Kaito or her dad.

"Um, well, I'm not comfortable over there," she finally said. "You like the wind but it's too harsh for me."

"Honesty usually is harsh," Aoko said, in the same dreamy voice, "but okay." She slid back until her legs were back on the concrete lip and then she swung herself back upright, climbing over the fence and back into the main area of the roof. The whole scene had attracted an audience; Keiko watched as the guidance counsellor rushed over to where Aoko was standing, gathering her up gently as though Aoko were made of fractured china (and perhaps she was) and shepherding her away, down to her office. Keiko herself was mobbed by classmates telling her how brave she was.

Keiko herself shook off the empty accolades and cried herself to sleep that night. When Aoko had turned around, she'd seen how empty Aoko's eyes were, and couldn't deny the truth: She hadn't talked Aoko off the ledge. Inside her head, Aoko had already jumped.

Aoko wasn't at school for the next week, and when she did reappear, she was much quieter. The wild, always-cheerful girl Keiko had grown up with wasn't there in her eyes anymore, and the young woman who replaced her was more precise, more controlled, and much, much less alive. There were still flashes of the old Aoko there, though.

On the second day that Aoko was back, she and Keiko came back from lunch early, to find Koisumi Akako holding court. Keiko held her breath and hoped against hope that the bitchy but beautiful queen-bee would leave the subject of Aoko alone. No such luck, of course.

"It was Kuroba's transfer out that set her off," Koisumi announced, lifting her head and grinning triumphantly at Aoko as she continued, "Everyone knows she's been nursing that crush on him for years."

Keiko gritted her teeth. Aoko had always treated the bitch with friendliness, ignoring her barbs and choosing to see the best in her, and *this* was how she was repaid? But before Keiko could do anything, Aoko walked up to stand directly in front of the queen of the school. Suddenly, as fast as a striking cobra, she grasped the front of Koisumi's uniform blouse and ripped it open, popping off and scattering buttons all over the floor. The thin chemise Koisumi wore underneath it came away too, and a second jerk made the thin cotton rip apart, treating the entire classroom to the sudden knowledge that Koisumi Akako hadn't worn a bra this particular day. Whilst everyone was still frozen in shock, Aoko smiled grimly, gently cupped Koisumi's chin and kissed her cheek, and then walked back to her desk, where she sat down and calmly began to get ready for the afternoon's classes. Koisumi came out of her shocked daze, shrieked in horror, crossed her arms over her chest and fled to the school nurse.

Nobody went anywhere near Aoko for the rest of the day after that, but Keiko heard respectful whispering amongst the girls behind her. Koisumi might have been the prettiest girl in the school, but she sure wasn't the best-liked.

On the way home from school, Keiko asked her, "Why did you do that, with Koisumi-san's blouse?"

"She's always promising to the boys that she'll give them what they want, and never delivers," Aoko replied. "I'm sick of people promising me things and never carrying through. So I carried through on her promise for her."

"It wasn't right, though."

"You mean it wasn't in the school rules. I've recently learned that following the rules isn't always going to lead to doing what's right."

"That sounds like something Kuroba-san would say," Keiko ventured gently. Just because Koisumi had been cruel hadn't necessarily meant she'd been wrong.

Aoko's face suddenly crumpled and she abruptly sat down on the edge of the road. "It is," she whispered, as tears began to run down her cheeks. Aoko wasn't one of those girls who can cry prettily, but while her eyes reddened and her breath shortened, as long as she didn't wipe her eyes or sniff she could still talk. "I - Keiko, he - he left because of me. No," she shook her head at Keiko as she opened her mouth to interrupt. "I'm a child - deliberately - because I knew if I grew up I'd have to face it - face that Kaito and I aren't just friends and face that Dad's priorities are screwed up and that the real reason why I wanted to be a policewoman was so Dad would see me, and I knew I couldn't handle it and - and I - I saw Kaito that weekend - I mean, really saw - and, and he told me everything and I couldn't answer him, Keiko, I couldn't, I really couldn't and - and he *left* and - and..." Aoko started to sob in earnest.

Keiko sat down beside Aoko and put her arm around her friend's shoulders, offering what small comfort she could. That, at least, she knew how to do.

Keiko and Aoko never spoke of Kuroba again, all year. University exams and then graduation came and went, and after a bittersweet spring break Keiko found herself a student at Keio University's Pharmaceutical College. Over the next four years she found that it was hard to explain to anyone outside the program about the beauties of the lab and the knowledge that making medicines was as important as prescribing them, and so there was a level of distance introduced into her old friendships.

Aoko had gone into law enforcement, as everyone expected; possibly not as everyone had expected, she had taken the first opportunity to go into the homicide and special victims tracks rather than the less-violent field of grand larceny. At first Keiko had thought that she had been avoiding dealing with her father, but Aoko had spoken as glowingly of the first day she had been on the team set to arrest a murderer as Keiko had felt the first time she had compounded her first prescription (in a lab, watched by the teacher, according to the instructions on the board, but *still*).

As Aoko had risen in the ranks, her partners and teams had changed, and she had dutifully introduced her new friends to her oldest. Before long, Keiko noticed a pattern emerging; although officially partnered to a standard policewoman, Aoko kept getting detached to work with the members of the Golden Trio of Japanese Detectives, whenever a case involving one popped up. Of course, Keiko knew Hakuba from high school, so that had been an instant topic at the dinner where Aoko introduced her to the other two. Hattori Heiji was loud, brash and completely transparent; Keiko wondered if he had gone into law enforcement out of sheer frustration at being the only person around completely unable to lie, and then dismissed the thought. She immediately liked Toyama Kazuha, Hattori's not-girlfriend (growing up alongside Aoko's not-girlfriend status had made her acutely aware of the differences between girlfriend, girl friend, and not-girlfriend, and how to pick each one). She also liked Mouri Ran, Kudo Shinichi's fiancee. Kudo himself, however, raised so many of her warning flags that she sometimes thought that if she had been a dog she'd never stop growling at him. He was charming, friendly, thoughtful, and somehow so artificial she was tempted to ask Mouri-san where the 'on' switch was. His conversation was inconsequential to the point of being ephemeral and his eyes never stopped searching. The only time he had seemed at peace was once when he had been looking at Mouri-san, and Keiko thought that a bomb could have gone off beside him and he would have neither noticed nor cared, his focus had been so intense. It was not until a few months later that she realised why Kudo-san made her so uneasy he was almost exactly the same as Kuroba-san had been.

Keiko had watched Aoko closely for a few weeks after that, but Aoko seemed completely indifferent to Kudo-san, and genuinely happy for his and Mouri-san's wedding. Keiko relaxed when she realised this. Maybe she's finally over him.

Three months after that introductory dinner, Aoko was permanently transferred to the Tokyo Metropolitan Homicide Squad. Three weeks after the transfer went through, their regular coffee date came up, and Keiko took the opportunity to quiz Aoko about it.

"So you're happy?" Keiko asked.

"Very," Aoko replied.

"And your Dad?"

Aoko grimaced. "I haven't spoken to Dad face to face for over six months."

"I'm sorry," Keiko said sincerely. Nakamori Ginzo's actions were no surprise to her really, but disappointing nevertheless. Her own parents were delighted with her progress and had greeted the news that Keiko was up for an internship with the pharmaceutical department of the University hospital with sincere happiness.

"It's all right, and only what I expected." Her demeanour shifted suddenly. "But you'll never guess what happened this week!"

Keiko leaned in closer. She hadn't seen that fey light in Aoko's eyes in years. "What? What?"

"I got a phonecall. Kaito's coming back to Japan!"

And, looking into Aoko's no-longer-sane eyes, Keiko felt the world bottom out on her again.

True to what Aoko had said, Kuroba joined the two of them the next month as they had their coffee together. Polite questioning on why he had left ("The American school year starts in September, and if I wanted to take up the scholarship I'd won, I had to be there when it started."), what he'd been doing in the intervening time ("Studying and training. It's really hard to break into the professional magic circuit,"), and if he were sticking around ("That depends on what the magic circuit's like here,") only delivered the expected answers. She wasn't sure what made her suspect that Kuroba wasn't what he appeared to be, whether it was the fact that he seemed calmer and more mature, or the way he watched Aoko, but she found herself watching him suspiciously.

Finally Aoko got up to use the ladies' room, and Keiko attacked.

"Who are you *really*?"

He looked taken aback. "Momoi-san, I'm Kuroba Kaito. Remember? We went through high school together."

Keiko frowned. "I went to school with Kuroba-san, yes. But are you really him?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" he asked, and amused tone in his voice.

Keiko glared. "Okay, Mr. Mystery Man," she hissed. "One thing. When Kuroba-san, whom you're impersonating, left, I had to talk Aoko-chan down from jumping off the roof of our school. If you put her back in that spot when she finds out you're not him and break her heart, I will hunt you down and *vivisect* you. I'm a medical technician. I have a scalpel and I know how to use it."

At that, he looked suitably shocked. "Momoi-san, I -"

Keiko cut him off. "Just know that that's a promise, not a threat." She looked up and saw Aoko returning to the table. "Aoko! Ready for another cake?"

Aoko sat down again. "Of course! But Kaito looks white. What have you been saying to him?"

"She's been threatening me with grievous bodily harm should I break your heart, like any good best friend," the fake Kuroba-san replied smoothly, with a chuckle.

"Yep," Keiko added cheerfully. "We know where we stand now."

"Oh, okay then," Aoko smiled, not taking the banter seriously.

Keiko watched them over the rim of her coffee cup as she sipped at it slowly, watching as Aoko and the man interacted. If he wasn't seriously interested, she decided, he was a very good actor. But still, Aoko was hideously vulnerable. She would have to keep watching.

The next week, the Kaitou Kid made a dramatic reappearance in the Japanese night sky, stealing and promptly returning a beautiful yellow diamond.

For the first time ever, Aoko was indifferent to a Kaitou Kid heist. I decided to give up being jealous of the Kid years ago, she explained to Keiko. And since, when you get right down to it, my anti-Kid thing really was all about my jealousy, when I grew up and realised it wasn't all about me, I kind of stopped caring.

The fake Kuroba-san was sitting in the room as she said this, and Keiko couldn't help noticing him flinch.

It was six months later that Aoko came to her, proudly displaying the diamond on her finger.

Will you be my maid of honour, Keiko? I know you don't always trust him...

Keiko shook her head. He's not good enough for you, she told her seriously. But then, not even Susa-no-kamisama would be good enough for you. So, I guess he'll do. She waited a beat and then grinned. Yes, of *course* I'll be your maid of honour! *+*+*+*

Keiko slipped into the relative quiet of the hall of the reception centre. It was time for the bride and groom to leave, and the farewell line was forming up, but she couldn't find Aoko or Kuroba-san anywhere. Kuroba-san had been holding Aoko's hand ever since the conclusion of the ceremony, and Aoko had encouraged it, so wherever they were, they were probably together.

Of course, Aoko's father hadn't made it. There had been a Kaito Kid heist on tonight, so the Kaitou Kid Task Force was out in force, guarding a giant sapphire called the Blue Princess, and Nakamori Ginzo, when confronted with a choice between standing up with his daughter at her wedding and pursuing the Kaitou Kid, had firmly plumped for the latter.

She was standing outside the dining room where the wedding supper had been served, debating whether to go in and try her luck at beating the waiters to some of the leftover dessert, when she heard a rich, smooth voice from inside.

Good evening, Inspector Nakamori. I must say, I'm surprised at you and your team. Here I am, about to make my getaway with the Blue Princess, whom, incidentally, I will not be returning, and I haven't seen hide nor hair of you.

Keiko peeped in the doorway, and saw Kuroba-san leaning against the wedding party's table, looking relaxed and at ease as he talked into a mobile phone.

How very diligent of you! But I'm afraid you're guarding the wrong treasure. Do tell me, Inspector have you noticed anything about this phonecall? Such as, whose phone it's from?

There was a pause, then, and Keiko felt frozen to the spot as a hundred little things from the past few months came together. She couldn't move or blink as Kuroba-san no, the Kaitou Kid, she realised continued to speak.

You wrong me, Inspector, he said, sounding mournful and amused at the same time. I swear in fact, I have just sworn, legally, in front of over a hundred witnesses - that I will never harm a hair of her head. He paused. Such language! he added virtuously. My target? You haven't yet realised? Well, then, tell me, please what does your daughter's name mean?

Her heart sank. Ao-ko the Blue Child, the Blue Maiden. The Blue *Princess*...

He'd told them. He'd told all of them, and they'd forgotten that the Kaitou Kid stole *treasures*, not just jewels...

Exactly, the Kaitou Kid hissed into the phone, all veneer of civility gone. As I promised, the Blue Princess is mine, now and forever. She has been taken from you, who valued her not; I shall not cede her into your uncaring hands again. He ended the call with a quick press of a button and laid the phone down on the table behind him. You can come in, Momoi-san, he added conversationally.

Keiko stepped into the room. Rather than pretend ignorance, she went straight on the attack. Okay, why? If this is just for revenge I swear I'll -

Because I'm in love with her, his voice cut across her tirade, stopping it dead. I've been in love with her for years and I couldn't stay away anymore, and then I couldn't not try to make her smile, and then I couldn't not try to make her love me back, properly, and then I couldn't not ask her to stay with me forever. Revenge for what? The Kaitou Kid Task Force haven't done anything to me if anything they've given me lots of entertainment.

Behind them on the table, Aoko's phone began to play, guitars and violins in a triumphant instrumental. Both of them ignored it.

She didn't have anything to say to that, until a thought crossed her mind. Aoko thinks you're her Kuroba-san -

Aoko knows exactly who and what I am. I told her ages ago, he replied conversationally.

You're a thief!

I was looking for something, and I found it. I have no more need to steal. Just as Lupin retired when he married Raymonde, so have I.

No, you *are* a thief! You know Inspector Nakamori will never after this slap in the face! Wherever you two go, you'll never be able to come back! I'll never see Aoko again!

You're overreacting, Keiko. Of course you'll see me again. Aoko's voice came from behind her. Keiko turned to see Aoko, wearing her blue going-away dress and holding the overnight bag they'd repacked just the day before in one hand. Yeah, Dad will be crazy, but you remember how easy it was to duck around him when we were teenagers. He's got even worse tunnel vision now. I'll get in contact with you, it'll be fine. She walked up to Kuroba-san and hugged him; he wrapped his arms around her so tight that it seemed to Keiko he was trying to break her. Kaito, how much time do we have left?

I hung up on him about, oh, two minutes ago. Say another three to finish getting into the squad cars and twenty-five to get here add ten minutes for traffic we have thirty-eight minutes.

Enough time to say goodbye, then. Aoko walked back to Keiko and hugged her, hard enough to strain ribs. This isn't 'goodbye', she said, it's 'see you later'. We will, don't worry. The two of them walked out, and Keiko felt bereft.

Behind her, the phone blared its happy tune again, and irritation pulled in all her confusion and hurt into itself and painted a big fat target on the phone. Her best friend might *say* she'd be back, but who could be sure? And it was because of the man on the other end of the call that she might not come back. So she reached over, picked it up, took a deep breath, pressed the 'Accept Call' button and began chattering.

Hey Aoko, you've left your phone behind! Don't worry, I'll look after it, it'll be fine. In fact it's probably better you did -

WHO IS THIS? roared out of the phone.

Oh, oh hi, Inspector Nakamori! This is Keiko, Aoko's friend. Were you ringing to offer your congratulations? I'm really sorry, but you've missed them! Aoko and Kuroba-san just left.

WHO?

Aoko and Kuroba-san you know, your daughter and her new husband? You just missed them, sorry.

Inspector Nakamori spat a curse word. Keiko grinned and blathered on, You could ring the hotel and ask them to put you through to their room, I'm sure Aoko wouldn't mind. Kuroba-san might, though!

Hotel? Which hotel? the Inspector demanded.

Keiko frowned at the phone. Even she knew that basic interrogation techniques involved being nice to the informant and encouraging them to chatter without thought, not cutting across and over them rudely and swearing. For that, the Inspector had just earned himself a nice little false lead. Well, I'm not sure on this, but Aoko mentioned the Grand Chevalier... The Grand Chevalier was a prestigious hotel on the other side of the city, incidentally well away from the reception hall and the route to Narita Airport. There was a sharp click in her ear as the Inspector hung up without a word.

Keiko shrugged and looked at the phone. Flashing on the screen was the text: 'SAVE AUDIO RECORDING OF CALL? Y/N'. Grinning, she pressed Y.

Let's see the Inspector get out of this.

The next six weeks were insane. Police interrogations. Requests for interviews from gossip magazines and tabloid TV shows. Veiled, not so veiled and outright demands for information about her best friend. Everybody wanted to know about the Blue Princess who had managed to bewitch the Wizard of the Twenty-First Century, as the romance of the situation captured the imagination of the public; Keiko didn't talk, but lots of others did. All the details of Aoko's life came out. Unsurprisingly, it appeared that 'Kuroba Kaito' didn't exist he'd left Japan at age seventeen and had apparently vanished into thin air until six months before, when he had appeared and begun courting Aoko. When that came out, Keiko felt completely vindicated for suspecting him the whole time.

It was after a long and tiring day at work that Keiko came staggering into her flat. She didn't even think to check the caller id as she picked up the ringing phone.

Hey, Keiko.

All her fatigue swirled away as she realised she was hearing her best friend's voice for the first time in six weeks. They chattered over inconsequential matters until Keiko gathered her courage and asked, Aoko, are you happy? Really?

Yes, Keiko. Really.

And Keiko could tell - for the first time in ten years, Aoko wasn't lying.

1. Keio University is one of the top ten universities in Japan, has one of the top medical programmes in the country and has five campuses located around the Tokyo prefecture. Although not as famous as ToDai, in the medical fields, including pharmaceutical medicine, it has an equal if not stronger reputation.  
>2. In 'L'Aiguille Creuse' ('The Hollow Needle'), the third novel featuring Arsene Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc, published in 1909, Lupin meets and falls in love with Raymonde de Saint-Veran; because she refuses to marry a thief, he gives up stealing and becomes an honest businessman. Although the character of Lupin is notorious as a ladies' man and married three times, his marriage to Raymonde is notable both for lasting the longest and being the only one he made major changes in his life for, and for these reasons many fans consider Raymonde to be the true love of his life. Their marriage was happy but brief; Sherlock Holmes tracked Lupin down and shot and killed Raymonde when she tried to protect her husband. Lupin promptly returned to his life of crime; it is a common and unsolvable debate amongst Lupin fans whether, if Raymonde had lived, he would have been able to stay straight or eventually returned to the criminal world. <p>


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